Padamo Quick Booster
Review by Phil Hoyle
What is the Padamo Quick Booster?
The Padamo Quick Booster is a BBQ accessory that works in conjunction with your chimney starter. It is designed to help light your briquettes and charcoal quickly by blowing air up the chimney starter which significantly accelerates the time it will take to light your briquettes or charcoal.
Padamo are a Danish company who offer a few BBQ accessories, including their own chimney starter and firelighters. Australian Heat Beads have a similar product but it is currently unavailable in the UK, so the Padamo version is the only one that you can currently purchase here.
It retails from around £35 but that does not include the mains power unit.
Why Do You Need One?
Where I see this product coming into its own is lighting briquettes. I frequently use Australian Heat Beads which give a consistent temperature for your cook and will last at least 3 hours. However, using a chimney starter, they can take 30-35 minutes to get to the desired temperature. This is not a huge time considering the cook length they will give, but midweek when you may want to get cooking quickly, it may put you off lighting the BBQ.
After using this product for 7 weeks, the Padamo Quick Booster halves the time required to get the Australian Heat Beads to cooking temperature. Using the Quick Booster the briquettes light in around 18 minutes and that is with a ¾ to full chimney starter.
As you would expect, it also has the same effect with lumpwood charcoal halving the time it takes to get the charcoal ready to cook over.
How does the Padamo Quick Booster Stack Up?
Unpacking the Padamo, the thing that struck me was that it feels like a really sturdy, quality product.
It runs on either battery or mains power, although it does not come with the mains adapter, which is an additional cost but would be a good longer term investment. It takes 4 AA batteries that last around 5 cooks (briquettes) before becoming ineffective. In total that provides around 1.5 to 2 hours use. Depending on how frequently you use it, the Padamo could rack up quite a cost in batteries.
The product works by placing a supplied metal plate on the top of the device. Next you place your firelighters or alternative starters on the metal plate and light them. Place your (already filled) chimney starter over the metal plate so it rests on the top of the Padamo Quick Booster.
Finally, turn the device on and let the product do its thing. All very simple and easy to use.
Verdict
The build quality of the Padamo Quick Starter is excellent. Mine has been left out in the elements with no detrimental impact so far. It definitely works and does what it is designed for. If you are quite often in a rush to light the BBQ this product will really help.
The downside for me is the speed it goes through the batteries, as this will prove expensive. I definitely think if this is a product used regularly it would make sense to invest in the mains power unit.
Overall, I think it is a good product and definitely delivers what is was designed for. However, I would definitely put this in the ‘luxury’ BBQ accessory bracket rather than being an essential. It is also fairly pricey especially when you add in the cost of batteries and/or the mains unit.
It won’t improve your cooks but it will certainly get you cooking quicker.
Phil
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